title: Diversity of immunoglobulin expression in leukaemic cells resembling B-lymphocyte precursors.
abstract: Approximately 20% of patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) have leukaemic blasts with features of pre-B cells which are the recently characterized precursors of B lymphocytes in normal development (for a review, see ref. 2). Pre-B cells isolated from normal bone marrow or fetal liver, and malignant cells from patients with pre-B cell leukaemia, are rapidly dividing lymphoid cells that contain cytoplasmic immunoglobulin mu heavy chains, but have no detectable surface immunoglobulin. The resemblance of immunoglobulin-containing ALL cells to normal precursors of B lymphocytes and their availability in relatively pure preparations allowed us to explore them as models of early stages in the differentiation of the B-lymphocyte line. We report here observations on the occurrence of intermediate pre-B/B-cell phenotypes, immunoglobulin isotype switching and the asynchrony of immunoglobulin heavy and light chain expression in 30 cases of ALL and 3 cases of chronic myelogenous leukaemia in lymphoblastic crisis (CML-BC).
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007137:Immunoglobulin alpha-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007142:Immunoglobulin gamma-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007951:Leukemia, Myeloid / Q000276:immunology; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000276:immunology*; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D007137:Immunoglobulin alpha-Chains; D007142:Immunoglobulin gamma-Chains; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell